Small Coins Great Meaning - Fiji Silver Coins 1942-43

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Author	Replies: 4 / Views: 1,449
wonghinghi Pillar of the Community Hong Kong 1270 Posts	Posted 05/16/2015 11:31 pm This coin is 0.90 silver instead of 0.50 silver in 1941 and longer before. Who know why Fiji Islands issued high silver coin (90%) during these two years instead of follow suit, producing 0.5 Ag coins as previously. For the same years, Cu-Ni pennies was replaced by brass metal. San Francisco mint of US was responsible for the production. These years was the culminating point of WWII. Are nickel and also copper the essential materials to produce weapons - guns and bullets? Did the prices of nickel and even copper being close to silver at that era? I would presume these military metals were being reserved for the wars so silver though a bit more expensive, still be used to produce coins. But much cheaper metals like brass were used to produce lower denomination is reasonable. The overall strategy was to focus on the weapons and wars. The above is just my presumption but I hope to listen your opinion about this extraordinary scenario. Henry Report this Post to the Staff

Harmonica Pillar of the Community Canada 1118 Posts	Posted 05/17/2015 01:10 am Alot of coins were made with off metals during WWII for that very reason so I wouldn't doubt it. Just look at the Canadian V nickel, AMerican Silver Nickels and steel wheaties. Report this Post to the Staff
sel_69l Bedrock of the Community Australia 21788 Posts	Posted 05/17/2015 01:37 am You will notice that there is an 'S' mintmark below the '43' in the date. That 'S' is the mintmark of the SanFrancisco Mint. Wartime silver coins for Fiji were minted under contract by the SF mint, using the standard .900 fine silver alloy for U.S. coinage. The U.S. wartime silver nickels are the subject of a parallel story. Silver at the time was realtively inexpensive, and perhaps it was not worth the effort to make .500 fine silver alloy that was used for other silver coins of Fiji. SF and Denver struck wartime silver coins for other nations as well, including Australia. In the case of Australia, .925 fine silver coins contineud to be struck to the (then) Australian standard for silver coins. Report this Post to the Staff
Sap Moderator Australia 16844 Posts	Posted 05/17/2015 01:58 am The 1942-43 Fiji silver coins were .900 fine simply because they were made in America, where .900 fine was the standard coinage metal. I don't think America was making .500 fine silver coins for anyone else, so (presumably) they couldn't be bothered making a separate alloy just for the tiny amount of coins they'd be making for Fiji. Copper and nickel were both important war materials, but their price never came close to parity with silver. Of course, for vital war materials, "price" becomes somewhat meaningless as restrictions and rationing make it unavailable, at any price. Don't say "infinitely" when you mean "very"; otherwise, you'll have no word left when you want to talk about something really infinite. - C. S. Lewis Report this Post to the Staff
wonghinghi Pillar of the Community Hong Kong 1270 Posts	Posted 05/17/2015 02:31 am Thank you all, something have been clarified. I learn a lot from this coin. Report this Post to the Staff
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